I was just wondering if anyone had a good experience with Ubuntu on a flash drive... I'm installing it right now. I formatted my 16GB flash drive to Ext2 because the default file system is ext4 but that one is journaled and USB flash drives do not like journaling.

I want to use this to learn Java and Ubuntu seems to be a great OS for this. I (obviously) have USB 2.0 ports where I will put the USB in.

3 Answers
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When creating a bootable USB you probably want to give it persistence, meaning your settings and files will be saved between boots. If you don't have this, it completely resets each time. A quick Google search about persistence with a live USB will yield plenty of info. I would also suggest mounting your harddrive when running from the flash drive and saving your files to the harddrive.

Hey and if you really start loving Ubuntu (which you will) consider making your laptop dual-boot. There is also plenty of info on that if you Google it.

If you boot from a CD or a second USB stick you can install the Grub loader and Ubuntu on the first USB stick and it boots really quickly you have to use Bios to select boot drive or set removable as first boot device AND it may only work on this specific PC unlike a Live USB stick that will load anywhere.

I use this method to boot from my USB HDD.

I use Ubuntu 13.10
Boot time is similar or faster than Windows 7 in this configuration

Warning I do have problems shutting down that result in me powering off and having to do a HDD check on next boot

Based on what @zuberuber says you can even install it on SD Card. With
the proper adaptor or natively on sd card embedded laptops. This is
how I am writting this: Installed in a 16GB SDCard with 10.5GB Free.

Anyway I suggest you to disconnect all your hard disk drives in your
computer, specially those which are having a OS installed (Windows,
Linux, etc.) as you may finish having a multi-boot USB/SD Memory with
GRUB and in certain cases the bootloader can be written in a different
device, other than the USB Memory/SD Card.